Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Power of a Dream

This post is brought to you by the letter P.

It was a dream, yet oh so vivid. It was New Year’s Eve. In my dream, for some reason, my husband was urging me to write about “power". The name Faith Popcorn (affiliate link) was mentioned - perhaps because in years past I’ve thought of her as my go-to predictor of the future as each calendar year comes to a close. In my dream I was craving popcorn, which is not uncommon when I’m awake, truth be told. I enjoy popcorn for snacking every few days. Packaging was featured in said dream as well - we are in the packaging business and had been, in real life, diligently churning out product demo videos over the holiday break.

Needless to say, New Year’s Day my first task was to take note of said dream. Then a reasonably polite interval after breakfast, I made some popcorn.

Power, popcorn, and packaging. Obviously popcorn and packaging figure into the scheme of my life on a regular basis. The word “power” is not one I consider often in relation to my own life. Why “power”? After some consideration, I think it may be related to all the talk of New Years resolutions and self-improvement promises swirling around me. All the promises to exercise more, eat better, quit smoking, refrain from cursing, call Mom weekly. I think this dream of “power” is a message to myself to reread a book that influenced my thinking more than any other in recent memory: “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” by Eckhart Tolle’s 1999 self-help book in which Tolle urges us to breathe “the air of the spiritual”. It was immensely helpful to me when I first read it a couple of years ago in my quest to become a more positive-minded individual.

Time to revisit “The Power of Now” and reinforce Tolle’s message of positivity and enlightenment. I find the more I seek the type of positivity found in books like Tolle's, the easier it is to maintain a good attitude, even in times of challenge. To me, that's power.